CSCE Student Chapters: Opportunities for Professional Development

Once again, a new school year is here and I would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to all civil engineering students across Canada. You have come from far and wide but with a common goal to succeed in your academic pursuits. The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) Student Affairs Committee wishes you well.

Academic success is indeed one key element in developing your future civil engineering career, but so are elements such as personal and professional development. Your CSCE Student Chapter is an excellent medium for you to develop or sharpen your personal and professional skills.

Participation in your chapter’s activities gives you the opportunity to visit engineering works, help organize chapter events, run for a student leadership office, prepare written reports and make oral presentations to small and large audiences, participate in local, regional and national CSCE meetings and conferences, and interact with other civil engineering students from different universities and colleges. Essentially, we are here to help you prepare for entry into your noble profession.

The 2016/2017 academic year was hugely successful with increased interaction among different CSCE student chapters. Participation in the 2017 Annual Student Chapter Leaders Workshop, held in Vancouver in June during the CSCE Annual Conference, increased by over 100% compared to the previous year. The National Civil Engineering CAPSTONE Design Competition also recorded an increase in participation. More than ever before, we are seeing our students’ resolve to enrich themselves and build those lifelong and valuable professional networks.

This school year, I envision new opportunities and I encourage every student to take advantage of the FREE student membership. We will continue to provide support to our student chapters by offering programs to provide excellent networking opportunities. This is the time to get involved.

Well, they say there is strength in partnership. Once again, with the collaboration of our Student Chapters, Faculty and Practitioner Advisors as well as the local CSCE Sections, the Student Affairs committee recorded another hugely successful school year in 2014/2015. And I would like to congratulate everyone who was involved, one way or another, in writing this success story.

Remarkable progress was made building on the high level of interaction that we started in the previous year. We made significant progress in our online student membership registration and we provided more support, encouragement and resources to help individual Student Chapters remain dynamic and maintain a sense of purpose. Collectively, we increased support to students’ participation in the National Capstone competition and the National Student Leaders Workshop held during the annual conference in Regina.

Congratulations to UBC Vancouver for winning the President’s Award for Outstanding Student Chapter; Western and BCIT scooped second and third places, respectively; Dalhousie and UBC Okanagan were judged as the most improved Chapters and the honourable mention went to Lakehead.

Congratulations also go to Polytechnique Montreal for winning the National Capstone Design Competition; UBC Okanagan and Western for taking second and third places, respectively; The University of Calgary for winning the Concrete Toboggan Race; Cégep de Chicoutimi for winning the Troitsky Bridge Building Competition; Université Laval for winning the National Concrete Canoe Competition.

There are individual students of note as well. Congratulations to: James Bomhof from University of Ottawa for winning the CSCE Hydrotechnical Engineering Award; Nathan Bruce from University of Regina for winning the Student Paper Competition; and Maxime Ampleman from Laval University for winning the Best Overall Student Paper Award in Engineering Mechanics and Materials.

Now, with a new school year comes a new opportunity to build on our previous success and explore new and exciting opportunities. Our programs will continue to address key aspects of students’ personal and professional development, such as self-reliance, leadership, decision-making, ethical behaviour, communication and teamwork, to complement their academic development. We will continue to offer exciting and stimulating programs to provide excellent networking opportunities for students, both regionally and nationally. We will engage the local CSCE Sections to participate in and provide support to Student Chapter activities. We will make student membership benefits more tangible and relevant.
This is the time to get involved. This is the time to make your student membership count and be part of a rewarding experience. Get involved in your CSCE Student Chapter today and begin those lifelong and valuable professional contacts.

CAPSTONE COMPETITIONThe next annual CSCE Capstone competition will be held during the 2018 CSCE Annual Conference in Fredericton, NB on June 13 – 16, 2018. This competition is open to all senior undergraduate students in an accredited Canadian civil engineering program. Each civil engineering department is invited to submit a nomination for a single entry into the competition in any specialty area of the field (Structural, Construction, Geotechnical, Geomechanics, Hydraulics and Water Resources, Transportation or Environmental Engineering), for projects completed during the 2017-2018 academic year.Competition Details

CSCE HYDROTECHNICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT AWARDInformation regarding nominations can be found at Honours and Fellowships.

DONALD JAMIESON FELLOWSHIP Established in 1987 in honour of the late Donald Jamieson, a prominent and talented structural engineer from Vancouver, B.C., the fellowship is awarded to full-time graduate students in structural engineering at a Canadian University. Please contact the civil engineering department at your university for application details.